This year, Robert Favre LeBret, the founder of the festival, decided not to include any films from Russia and Japan (their flags were missing on the Croisette).

He was tired of the "Slavic spectacles and Japanese samurai flicks.".

[4][5] The Russians took back their juror Sergei Obraztsov (head of Moscow puppet theater) and left the jury panel with only eight members.

Nobel Prize for Literature winner Miguel Ángel Asturias was appointed as president of the jury.

[2][6] The festival opened with Les Choses de la vie, directed by Claude Sautet and closed with Le Bal du Comte d'Orgel, directed by Marc Allégret.